How, when and where do you spend your creative time? Do you deliberately carve time out of your week to sit and do nothing, daydream and wait for ideas to hit you? If youre too busy to take time to brainstorm, then your business may be suffering.
I have long held the belief that work should not be spent just with tasks. Part of the job is carrying out tasks for clients, but you also need to set aside time to think about the future, plan the present and learn from the past.
Many call this strategic planning, but Im thinking about something a little bit deeper. During every workweek, I spend about two hours doing nothing -- or rather, something very unrelated to running my business and clients. One week, I watched a movie and got inspired. Another time, I watched some stand-up comedy and came back to my desk refreshed. I have also been reading Jon Acuffs book, Start, for inspiration -- but I find I can read it only in small segments, as it tends to propel me to get back to work. Sometimes I simply sit in my backyard listening to the birds and waiting for the ideas to come.
I can almost hear some readers scoffing. "I dont have time to do this," they might say. "I have important work to do. I own a business and I cant afford to do this.
True -- your business is important. But if dont take time out to dream, you may find that your business starts to own you, rather than the other way around.
